[avaissema]

my fiance's family are real issan rice farmers, i recently bought them a rot thai na, after watching a previous pre-harvest and harvest i realised the value of this item.

i would like to find another source of income without relying on the rice farm so much.
the land around Pen seems hard work for any farmer.

any ideas on a product they could utilise, to earn money whilst rice is not growing, of course like my other arrangements(small loans) with the family, money will be paid (only a nominal sum) to my bank account as i like to maintain a certain position in the relationship, not the farang ATM

i would only spend maybe 40,000 baht to start a little side line for them.

[gastabegree]

Yes our domestic grown rice is MUCH more dry than Thai and Lao grown rice. Our rice even after steamed for considerable time is still to dry for our taste Would be kionda cool makin sticky rice outta US grown rice lol

[mr.supervideogoodfd]

I just meant it in a humorous way, you know all the white follks eating sticky rice hehe

[9V4i8xw1]

And I pay 60 baht / kilo for Thai-grown Jasmine Rice ¢éÒÇËÍÁ in Minneapolis, and I think that's cheap.

So the farmer gets 5-7 baht. Hmmmmm. I guess there are a lot of other players in the system.

Thank you, Thai farmers. ¢Íº¤ØêÒǹÒä·Â

áºÃ´

[Indian Butt Magic]

Yes, The farmer never gets much, I was in southern Tasmainia about 3 years ago, and there were apple farmers there with honesty boxes, you put in one dollar Australian (30 Baht) into a money box and pick up a bag of apples, The farmer relies on your honesty to put the money in the box. There was 13 medium size granny smith apples in the bag. I guess the farmer would get even less if he sent them to markets.

[Hlennisal]

Quote[/b] ]A family of ten eats about 55 bags of rice per year, so if you have a family of ten with a 25 rai farm makes somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 baht cash per year.

Quote[/b] ]And I pay 60 baht / kilo for Thai-grown Jasmine Rice ??“? in Minneapolis, and I think that's cheap.
So the farmer gets 5-7 baht. Hmmmmm. I guess there are a lot of other players in the system.

Quote[/b] ]We grow mostly khao nieo and a little bit khao jao.

Yum, yum! I love khao nieo. (I'm sure I'm not the only one!) I wish it were more easily accessible abroad, but because it is not, it's even more expensive than khao hom mali. Someone should get their hands on exporting khao nieo in a consitent way and targetted to the right places.

Maybe the internet revolution can help cut out all these middlemen and give farmers their due. It is my wish to one day see farmers as the most respected and well off citizens of the world. They produce our food! Shouldn't that be more important than most things?

Thanks for posting a crucial topic for Thais, Delawang!

[giftplas]

Farming, growing and selling food stuffs . So what exactly is the current system of selling rice or other food items in Thailand. Are there co-ops? I have seen trucks overloaded with pineapples heading for Bangkok. Salt stacked in bags. Orchards of fruit trees with all the fruit wrapped on the trees to protect them from insects and birds.

[Hlennisal]

Delawang,

Nice story about the "modern scarecrow" technique. That is so innovative! Also interesting what you've said about liquid fertilizer.

Don't get sensitive about the profit of selling part. Business is not a problem just as long as it is conducted in a fair manner. Of course, the way that businesses have been run in the west, or rather let's say, with the beginning of mercantalism, it has been excessively extractive. I hate to keep saying that in Thailand there are all these good things, because I'm very well aware of the negative things going on as well. However, I want to draw your attention to alternative business models developed in Thailand especially related to farming and innovative lower-cost alternative technologies. Some examples that will direct you to uncovering this world are: the Lemon Farm group of retail stores for farmer's products, Chamlong's School for Leaders which gathered a group of like-minded people who are vegetarian and organic producers, Ban Gud Choom's community currency initiative, the nationwide micro credit programs, the King's mother crop-substitution project based in Chiang Mai.

OK, OK, I can go on and on, but I better stop before you get turned off. I guess the point I want to get across is that business can be a socially-oriented process.

If it's within your power to initiate this internet-based direct sales and exportation of rice for Thai farmers, it would be such a great contribution! (Myself, I don't have enough knowledge about internet technology, nor rice farming.)

Part of the biggest problem with exporting rice has been packing (so that the rice doesn't deteriorate), and hygiene restrictions of many importing countries. Thai rice was only allowed into Mexico after a method was negotiated for them to feel comfortable that they won't be getting weavles from Thailand since that pest doesn't exist in their country. So you see, it's not only economics of production, its also the "politics of selling rice".

Hmm, but now that you've got me rethinking the issue, in this age it could well be a "management of information" issue!

BTW, the new nickname you gave me is a bit unflattering. No offense taken, but I wouldn't be happy to have it catch as a meme. So maybe you can call me by my real nickname: "Nui"?! (Chucks, the multiple identities the internet gives us.)

See ya later,
Nui.

[warrgazur]

Hi Delawang. Her (nick)name is Pook and she lives just outside Uttaradit. Her father is a sugar cane farm, but very old now. I can't quite make sense of the economics of the peanuts - maybe I'm not meant to. One thing I do know - the economics of sugar cane aren't very good. Pook's father has over 200 rai and finds it difficult to live. I Have just bought some land, I suspect that it would be a VERY long time before a farmer got his or her money back by growing crops. Anyone know of a crop which would give a good return on your monwy ?

[warrgazur]

Thanks Delawang
That was a really interesting reply. It makes a lot of things clearer now. The land we bought is in central Thailand, near Uttaradit on a main road, and we paid 55k a rai - was this a good price or not ?
In the UK farming is very different - this is why land and food prices are so high here. Farmers expect to make a very good living from their work - and why not ? - Without them we would all starve. I must say it makes me angry when I see my girlfriends parents worrying so much - 200 lai of sugar cane and they could not afford to fix their pickup. They are very old now, and they are starting to sell off their land or give it to relatives - I think they have had enough of the hardship and worry - and they are well off compared to small farmers.
It seems that someone is making money out of exporting food around the world - but it is not the farmers. Maybe its about time something changed ?

[giftplas]

Farming to feed nations is a way of life. Sometimes farmers are looked down upon. Yet these people have away of life that is tied to the earth. Will the weather be favorable? Will there be insect infestation? Will they get a fair price for their product?
In spite of all the hardships thrown at people of the country , their lifestyle and togetherness is the backbone of society.

[Hlennisal]

I think a "rot dum na" should solve the problem. (I promise to search what I can find on the internet, if there isn't one could probably be invented, now the idea is there.) With a rot dum na, the kids won't have to learn how to plant individual seedlings, but they'll still need to learn how to recognize a healthy plant from a non-healthy one.

I believe in the US, they grow a different strain of rice, called the US long grain, it's harder on your tooth and sorts of taste too dry for the Thai taste. The rice needs to be cooked in a different way than just the simple way we do in Thailand. It doesn't need to grow in water as the Thai variety does. So I guess it grows easier from the seed, similar to wheat that is grown around the world.

The story about the Sala makes me smile. My mother who is 76, last year built herself a new house. I was amazed at how she did it. She hired the son of her neighbor to be the construction manager. He learnt how to oversee a construction just by watching some other people do it. My mother got her house in 6 months at about a sixth of the prize that I paid for building my own house that took about a year to complete. Trust the genius of the Thai people to learn, and to adapt.

Your wife is right, you worry too much. Your kids will be building solar-equipped huts by the time they grow up, so don't worry about the cement, and steef stuff.

[Hlennisal]

Being Thai (both natural and adopted Thai, such as dear Delawang, host of this forum here) means having a close identity with rice. Despite living half across the world, far away from the source of this staple, we tend to casually accept the fact that our local rice (Kao Hom Mali) is being sold in markets all around the world. When we stand in the aisle of our modern supermarkets, picking up that nicely packed sack of rice, we rarely question the wonder of how this came to be, maybe assuming that like any other commodity, it just naturally comes with marketing. More often than not we suffer a slight amnesia concerning the huge debt we owe to the hardworking, simple, generations of rice farmers we forever see bending their backs, knee-deep in muddy water-logged paddy fields in the country-side of our beloved homeland. Their story about how they have been the backbone of our modern economy is buried deep beneath more recent, sensational stories about globalization, tourist destinations, pop culture, political agendas, and depressing news about war. I'd like to invite you to pause a while in our fast-paced electronic conversations and try to remember these peoples' stories. Here's a picture to help recall some memories:

The above rice sailling boat was photographed near Ayutthaya in 1921. (Source of picture:www.bygonepics.com) I hope it may invoke those non-photographed images of more ancient boats that probably looked quite similar to the above that sailed on that same river some 300 years ago and maybe wonder a bit about how that spot must have looked like as the millions grains of rice flowed through those hundreds of years. Isn't it quite a marvel?

[foltdan]

Hi again Delawang,

I've been thinking about farming since it's been summer and there's been some occasion to drive around the country and pass by some farms here in Canada. (Alas, a few more months and all this green is gone!) I've noticed that all the farms here are really large plots, all worked on by machinary, especially to clear the land. I know they hire workers (from abroad, btw, so they can save on wages) during harvesting time for vegetables and fruits. When it comes to grain, I understand that it is all done by machines. High investments, energy consuming, environmentally destructive (maybe), and they seem to make a lot of money. I've visited one Mennonite farm that has (on the same huge plot) both a vegetable farm and a factory to produce huge concrete mixing tanks: the farm to make money in summer, the factory to make money in winter. In another area, I've some really huge high-techy looking greenhouses where they produce flowers. I didn't get a close look at the business though. Yet despite this extensive farming in Canada, they don't produce enough to feed the population. A large proportion of the food in supermarkets are imported. I also understand that most of what is farmed is exported to the US, such as tomatoes and potatoes. What an odd dilemma, I believe it is called comparative advantage economics.

Last time, I was in Thailand, I noticed some Thai farms using machinery, judging by the tractors I see parked on some farms (I guess they're called something else, right?) Of course, this tends to get them involved in loans they sometimes can't support. However, I think farming can no longer be low-cost and simple, if the farmers want to achieve higher earning, they may have to be trained how to be investors, marketers, and bankers at the same time. Diversifying to higher yeilding crops such as organic, vegetables and fruits, even flowers might be a good idea too. Even if it seems difficult to see, I think it is going there slowly. But at the same time, I hope Thai farmers maintain the values they've learnt from being farmers, as pointed out, the most valuable is being self-sufficient.

Delawang, do you know anything about seed feeders? That might be able to replace the process of taking young plants from a nursery? Maybe, there exists some low-cost feeders somewhere in the country being developed?

[warrgazur]

Anyone know the economics of growing peanuts ? My girlfriend has just sown 5 rai (of the small peanuts) and I am interested in how much this will cost and how much she will make